It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas ....

We caravaned to Helms Christmas Tree farm on Saturday with the Burlingame family in hopes of finding the perfect Christmas tree. We usually buy a pre-cut from a local church, but decided that we would start a new family tradition of cutting our own. North Carolina is known for Christmas trees so we figured we couldn't go wrong. We did a little research before making the trip however and found out that the most common Christmas trees grown in NC are Frasier Fur trees (the kind we always had before), but Frasier Fur trees only grow in the mountains. We decided we didn't want to spend six hours in the car going to get a tree so we settled for the less common species that Helms Tree Farm had to offer. We ended up with a 12 foot Cypress ~ I think. Whatever it is, it's HUGE! I swear I think it grew a few feet on the drive home, it did not look this big when we found it.
Will brought his own chainsaw for the event and was very excited about the entire process. Ma came over Sunday to help us bring the tree into the house. I had the ingenious idea of putting the stand on the tree while it was laying down in the driveway, I knew there was no way we were going to be able to lift it straight up to get it into the stand. Little did we realize that getting it into the stand was only half the battle. Getting it to stand up was the other. At first it looked like it was going to be nice and sturdy. After getting it straight I started putting lights on it. About an hour later it fell. It fell over many times.

A falling tree is as good as any reason to get the power tools out, so that's just what Jon did. Two screws in the hardwood floor, one tie down strap and and eye hook into the window casing, later and we have a tree that will never come down. It really might be the new focal point of our family room for quite some time. You can get a feel for its size in the above picture ~ that's a 12 foot ladder in front of it. Needless to say, we didn't get around to decorating it yesterday with all the 'security' issues. After Ben got home from school today the kids went to work. We always have two trees, the fake one in the foyer is for me to decorate and fuss over and the one in the family room belongs to the kids. They can do whatever they want to it. I try not to micro manage too much, but I did have to help space out the ornaments after Will tried to put them all on the same branch. The tree in the foyer holds most of the breakable ornaments while the family room tree has all the kid made ones. As much as I love to decorate 'my' tree, I must admit theirs is by far my favorite.
Santa is going to be quite impressed with letters from the Palmer kids this year. Ben is almost able to write the entire thing without asking for assistance, and look at Miss Kate! I am so impressed with her writing skills, she is even trying to spell words by sounding them out. I'm sure it won't be long before she's reading just like her big brother! I hope Santa is prepared, Ben asked for a laptop, a 'real' one. I'm hoping he'll understand that Santa only brings toys.Notice Kate's list ~ chocolate, a candy cane, some markers ... now that's a list Santa can be excited about!

Earlier today Kate and Will were playing so nicely together in the playroom, I just had to take a picture ~ after all it doesn't happen all that often. Here they are running 'Kate's Cafe'. Craig-o ... we did not forget your Birthday. I've been having trouble getting videos uploaded on here. We were thinking of you and hope you had a wonderful day on Saturday. We love you and miss you!! (PS You left all your yummy cheeses and wines here ... thank you, they have made very nice snacks!)